I didn’t understand either, up until now. I slowly shook my head, wrapping my arms tighter around myself. “I don’t want to. I’m sick of kings forcing me to do things. I’m done listening to orders. If you want to get away from me so bad, then happy swimming, asshole.”
He fumed down at me, rage and violence and dark energy rolling off of him in a toxic miasma that made my head swirl and my beast whine with need. He opened his mouth as if to say something but clamped it shut a second later. Then he slid into a sitting position, this time right beside me.
Acutely aware of his proximity, I closed my eyes again and focused on steadying my breathing. The heat cycle couldn’t last forever. I would just have to restrain my demon from doing anything stupid because Lucifer had made it abundantly clear he wouldn’t be making the first move.
“Why do you have to get off this boat so damn bad?”
It was a few seconds before he answered, and when he did, his tone was exhausted, weary, and now void of all ire. “Because your feminine hunger is driving me mad, Lilith. I can’t handle it.”
“Other than all the theatrics, you’re handling it just fine,” I snorted.
“Am I?” He let out a laugh devoid of all humor. “You don’t know what depraved, salacious, sinful thoughts are going through my mind right now. I have to fight my own beast. You’re lucky I can’t shift. If I could, he’d be too strong for me to fight, and you’d be on your back right now, with your legs spread, screaming my name until your voice gave out.”
A rush of heat raged through me like wildfire. Oh, Fates, how I wanted him to act on those instincts. Did he really not understand that other males wouldn’t be affected by this?
“Lucifer. My scent wouldn’t have this effect on you unless you were—”
“Don’t say it,” he growled.
“My true mate.”
The tension between us was so thick it was almost lethal. I could hardly breathe, though I wasn’t sure if that was in the wake of our fight or my blistering need for him to mate me. How could my beast be so reckless, so embarrassing? So damn shameless? But she didn’t give two shits. All she wanted was him.
“I have a mate. I need to get back to her.” His protest was weaker than the first. Like mine, his resolve was crumbling with every passing breath. Clearly, neither of us seemed super thrilled with the idea of our beasts resonating, but it wasn’t something we could fight for long, especially not forced together like this in this damned boat.
The only mate I had ever known was Abaddon. He wasn’t the one my beast or The Fates approved of, but he didn’t really care about anybody’s desires but his own. He took what he wanted, when he wanted. So Lucifer’s hesitance was new to me. I would never have pegged the desecrated celestial as a gentleman of all things, but hey, I guess he really was the change this realm need. The changeIneeded.
If he had been any other male, I would not fall asleep near him. Especially not in this state. But Lucifer was different. I trusted him. And my beast, twisted and fucked up as she was, wanted him to touch me whether I was conscious or not. She wanted him so bad, she filled my head with dirty dreams.
Usually, I had nightmares, with the cruel blue eyes of my ex-husband and his humiliating demands. But on this night, instead of the blue eyes of Abaddon the Destroyer, I dreamed of the golden eyes of Lucifer Morningstar. My beast imagined a fantasy where she had resonated with him, and he with me. A purr rose up from my chest, the call of my demon crying out for her mate. His thick, masculine growl of a purr sounded back, resonating with mine. Then his lips found mine in a heated kiss that turned my body to liquid beneath him. The kiss was so sweet, soright.The simple brush of lips was more pleasurable than anything else I’d ever experienced at Abaddon’s hands.
It felt so real. It didn’t feel like a dream. And knowing it wasn’t real had my beast crying out in pain. Then, another growl sounded in my ear. It was so loud, so close, so…real. I woke on a gasp, and my eyes flared open.
Lucifer was on top of me, holding my head between his hands, his lips on mine. It wasn’t a dream; I hadn’t imagined him kissing me. In my sleep, I had let out a heated purr, and his beast had answered mine. “Lilith…” My name on his lips was spoken like a plea of desperation, husky and swollen with need.
“Lucifer…” I answered him with a tentative whisper. I arched up off the skiff deck, pressing into him. When his rock-hard erection pressed against my thigh, he let out a guttural groan.
His head dipped, his brow coming to rest on mine. “You feel so damned good, Lilith.”
His words were like oil on flame. My entire being burned for him. My core was a hot, needy mess that had me writhing beneath him, desperate for the satisfaction of release that only he could give.
I eased my legs open, allowing him to settle between my thighs. His breath hitched as he lowered himself on top of me, slowly swaying his hips against mine to sate the arch. Even with layers of clothes between us, I could feel the heft of his arousal. Fates, I had never wanted anything so bad as I wanted him. I would forgo all water if it meant quenching the thirst between my legs.
I wanted him to fill me, to claim me as his own.
I wanted to be his everything.
I wanted him to bury himself in everything I was until he forgot all about his Eve.
My hand caressed the back of his head and pushed down gently to guide his lips back to mine. I nipped at his bottom lip, and his mouth stretched into a heated smirk against me. His taste was so good that it was unholy. He tasted like ash and depravity at its finest. He tasted of sin and paradise. It was a heady cocktail that had me seeing stars.
His muscles were wound tightly against me as if he were still fighting his beast. He was still battling his instincts.
Why? Why was he fighting this when it felt so right? Could he not feel with same blistering heat taking over his whole body, was his beast not screaming in his ear to take me?
I moaned against him, half in hopes it would encourage him and half because I couldn’t control myself. This wasn’t the place or time for a coupling. Not when my moans of pleasure coiled with the tormented moans of the sullied just over the skiff’s railing.
But I couldn’t help myself. I needed him so bad it fucking hurt. My clit throbbed as he rubbed his erection over my groin, making me curse the layers of fabric between us.
